ch 1

Taylor opened her eyes abruptly, quickly regretting it as the light pierced her retinas and reignited her headache. Information began to flood back into her mind againcausing a brief panic, so she stopped trying to get up, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, just as she did when the trio played one of their cruel pranks, hoping everything would stop spinning.

Where am I? What happened? thought Taylor, trying to understand her situation.

Her memories were slowly coming back, with pieces gradually falling into place, and the confused information starting to make sense.

This is my power... I have a power, I can... control insects.

Still in shock, she tried to flex her control, moving the insects to her will with a thought, which only resulted in another wave of disorientation.

"Ha ha ha,hahHAHAHAHA!, This has to be a damn joke… of all the powers, it had to be insects…"

And wasn't that appropriate?

Tears began to flow again, she had dreamed of being Alexandria during her childhood, admired and envied Glory Girl equally since she gained her powers and officially joined New Wave. But no, she wasn't the smart blonde with an hourglass figure and a perfect appearance who could fly and pass through walls, she was Taylor Hebert, the bug girl with a frog body... nothing new.

Why? Why do some have to be so lucky and not me? Was her luck that bad? Was it some kind of poetic irony for laugh of her?

Focusing on her power to distract herself from life's injustices didn't help as much as she had hoped, especially because it didn't allow her to continue ignoring reality.

She hadn't wanted to think about the insects in their incubation state inside her body or get lost in the overwhelming information, but the small details that didn't fit were gaining significance in the back of her mind.

Carefully opening her eyes, she was met with her familiar blurry vision.

Where am I? Why does my body feel so strange? No matter how blurry everything became in the distance, Taylor wasn't that blind yet. It was clear she was no longer in her locker or in the city.

Glasses, I need my glasse.

Without Taylor realizing it, instinctively reached into one of the large pockets from which she pulled out a pair of strange sunglasses, she had done it without thinking, felt like a habitual movement and paradoxically, it felt like a stranger, as if the movement wasn't really hers, the glasses themselves looked like ordinary sunglasses, but when she tried them on, her blurred vision cleared, mentally filing away the experience in her rapidly growing list of strange and senseless things happening to her, she took a glance around her surroundings.

With the newfound clarity of her vision, many questions started to answer themselves, only for new ones to appear.

Why am I in a damn forest? Did someone take me out of the school locker? Is this another cruel joke, or was I simply assumed dead and thrown into the forest to dispose of my body?

My body...?

Something was wrong with her body Taylor felt lighter than ever, when she looked down and saw her hands, they were full of calluses but what drove the final nail in the coffin was her clothing, she was wearing clothes that had never seen before.

Standing in the middle of an unfamiliar forest, wearing unfamiliar clothes and in an unfamiliar body, she could only think of one thing.

Am I a Case 53? Am I in a parallel world?

Very little was known about Case 53s except that they appeared out of nowhere with no memories in monstrous bodies bearing a distinctive tattoo.

Without wasting time, she started to undress quickly, the clothes were surprisingly practical, styled similarly to her own style , covering much of her skin, although with a military uniform style instead of civilian.

The initial panic subsided when she found no distinctive marks ,mouths, tentacles, or extra eyes, however, she noticed her body was well-trained; her belly and thin build were gone, this body had defined trained muscles, perhaps even more so than Sophia. Among her new belongings, she found several interesting items: some military-looking provisions, what appeared to be a first aid kit, kunais, shuriken stars, and some large needles, all well organized among the various pockets of her clothes and a sort of fanny pack. She had never seen ninja stars before but she knew that in her city, some members of the Azn Bad Boys carried kunais symbolically, these did not seem to be merely symbolic...

Could this be a special reverse Case 53? But I retain my memories... I still keep them ??!

She struggled to remember how she had ended up here. First, she had been ripped from her body, then the journey to the crystalline world where she collided and merged with an alternate Taylor…

False alarm...she still had her memories; only the journey from her world to this one was confusing, On the other hand, would she really know if she had forgotten something? Following that line of thought would drive her insane, so she tried to ignore it.

Did we swap bodies? Everything pointed to yes.

Who was the owner of this body? What kind of world am I in? The last item she possessed was a headband with a metal plate. When she brought it close to appreciate the inscribed symbol, a headache made her drop it.

The intrusive thought scared her, what is Konoha? The sudden influx of memories this time was more anticipated, which allowed her to handle it better but left her with considerable concern, Did we merge? No, that wasn't possible she clearly remembered separating Are these just residual memories? Taylor really hoped so. The last thing she needed now was an identity crisis.

She also felt ashamed at the idea that her counterpart might be locked in her scrawny, ugly body.

Dad... will he notice? Will he even try to figure out what happened? The thought filled her with bitterness and sadness

Her father had been practically a robot or a walking corpse since her mother died, focusing on work to drown out any pain or depression. When did we grow so distant that I doubt he would recognize me...?

The more Taylor reflected, the more desperation and anxiety she felt just as little was known about alternate worlds and interdimensional travel as about Case 53s . With Professor Haywire's death, the field had basically stagnated, leaving her trapped in an unknown world with no way of getting home.

Taylor sat there, staring at the sky blankly.

Now what?

Gradually, she started moving in a random direction, she couldn't just stay there; if Taylor stopped to think, would break down. She didn't know where she was, but there was only one place she could go.

Konoha... if only I knew which direction it was...

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The sky was darkening when Taylor decided to stop walking and camp beside the road, during the day, she had walked in a random direction until she came across a river where refilled her canteen and took a bath, a much-needed relaxing moment given the circumstances. Taylor contemplated several strangely colored fish and took the opportunity to look at the reflection of her new face, which, as she suspected, was practically identical to her own. Later, while playing and practicing with her powers to pass the time, she reached a wooden bridge that connected a dirt road, excited by the first sign of human presence, Taylor quickly crossed the bridge and found an intersection, without signs or clues to guide her to her destination she simply chose the left lane because it seemed to follow the river and had the most wear marks from traffic.

Lying at the base of the tree, she realized she had no idea how to start a fire, the sun had already set, and it was starting to get cold.

Tch... who doesn't carry something to start a fire when going into the woods? The rations will last me a couple more days... a week if I ration them. If I don't find food by then, I'll have to hunt or eat insects...

She stopped the shiver at that thought when another micro-migraine hit her head. In these memories, the alternate Taylor spat fire to start a fire after performing strange hand gestures.

Was she a parahuman? Could she manipulate or spit fire? It didn't seem like a bad power, but Taylor's spits remained normal spits, unintentionally, just like with the glasses, thinking about spitting fire, Taylor began to move her hands instinctively. She performed the same gestures as in the memory, but nothing came out from her mouth except air, coming out of the small trance, sighed she had had periods of what she called 'fugue' throughout the day, them seemed to be triggered by everything, from the situations she found herself in to her own thoughts. Taylor would simply fall into a trance where she experienced memories that weren't hers, this time had been useless, so she was going to be cold for a while.

Reflecting on the memory, Taylor suddenly went still No, it wasn't "nothing"...

Something had moved inside her body, and fortunately, it wasn't insect eggs, she had felt it slightly when performing the hand gestures, but it had quickly vanished like a breeze of hot air, excited by the new discovery, Taylor spent the following hours performing the gestures, initially, her gestures were much clumsier because this time she was trying to perform them voluntarily, but her improvement was rapid and steady, feeling more like remembering something rather than learning something new. Although at the start she felt a bit disillusioned and even briefly thought it might have been her imagination when she failed to feel the strange sensation the first few times it apparently was a matter of practice, with repetition and improvement the sensation reappeared, faint like the breath of a mouse but growing stronger and clearer with each repetition.

At midnight Taylor was exhausted and still cold; she hadn't managed to spit fire. Something was missing, part of the process surely related to the sensation inside her body was getting lost, but it was too late, and she had to keep walking the next day.

Questions and more questions, but few answers. She had nothing to write down her thoughts with, so she would have to rely on her memory for the time being. She enjoyed a pleasant solitary evening in the darkness while eating what appeared to be military rations and contemplating the beauty of the stars without the light pollution of the cities. Later, she curled up and cried until she fell asleep, thinking about her situation.

The next morning, worried because the path was moving away from the river and not knowing when she would have the opportunity to bathe again, Taylor took advantage of not having gone too far to retrace her steps. Around her, almost out of sight, thousands of flying insects flew in strange patterns and shapes while carrying other insects.

Bugmaster... no, people hate the masters, Swarm ? No... too scary... I didn't know that choosing a hero name would be so difficult... Despite doing what she had so often dreamed of as a child, it left a bitter taste in Taylor's mouth her power wasn't exactly attractive to the public I'll come up with something.

The day before, she had been testing her powers; it seemed the insects transmitted their senses to her, but she couldn't understand them—it was as if she could suddenly see sounds or hear touch, simply bewildering. However, the combination of saturating the entire area with insects gave her an impressive awareness of her surroundings, with an approximate range of two city blocks in all directions. Taylor had also tested another various things, such as her ability to control individuals, where more than finding a limit, she felt it was her lack of practice and familiarity with it that hindered her. She could sense and control everyone within her range in a general sense, but the more finely focused on controlling them individually, the harder it was not to get distracted and disoriented.

Taylor still needed to practice coordination and become familiar with the capabilities of her insects, which obeyed all her commands without regard to anything, even breaking the limits that all living beings have to not harm their own bodies.

Even absolute control is useless if I don't know what to do with it..

Finding herself unable to carry most of the insects she encountered, Taylor had to come up with a more creative solution to ensure her safety and the growth of her swarm so she used flying insects to transport others.

Is Brockton Bay's paranoia affecting me ? She quickly dismissed the thought, alone in an unknown world with no one to turn to or ask for help, paranoia could save her life

More honestly, at the moment, She was just a teenager who wanted to feel safe in an unknown world.

Returning to the river, she learned something new about her power. Apparently, the insects would maintain the orders she gave them even after leaving her range of control, something she could use and would use to trace her path without anyone else knowing and would give her some peace of mind at nights

One thing she had noticed about her new body was that when she wasn't thinking about it, her body instinctively started walking in a silent manner, even when running at speeds she was sure were superhuman, giving her a rating of Brute, Stranger, and perhaps Mover.

The feeling of the wind when running was fantastic, and although she couldn't do it for long distances without leaving her swarm behind, she tried to do it as much as possible.

Is this what makes Sophia feel superior? Leaving everyone behind? she couldn't deny that it was pleasant, but that still didn't excuse anything.

................................

..................

.........

Taylor sighed as she emerged from the cold river water it wasn't the best way to start the day, but she was glad to do it this way; there was something about a cold water bath in the morning that helped clear her mind. The sun had been shining in a cloudless sky for a while; it probably wasn't later than ten in the morning, though the exact time was a mystery to Taylor, as far as she knew, the days might not last as long as they did on her Earth, lying on a rock in the sun like a lizard, comforted by knowing that no one could observe her without her knowing, she began to plan her day with inhuman calm. Taylor was quite proud of how she had adapted and analyzed the capabilities her power provided, ironically, the most useful feature of her power so far was not the enhanced spatial awareness given by her insects, which would have been much more useful if she were still in Brockton Bay attending Winslow High, but the ability to bleed her emotions into her swarm. She discovered this ability while meditating during a panic attack. Now, whenever she started to panic, got too frustrated, or felt that fear was about to paralyze her, she could distance and channel these emotions into her insects, allowing her to remain calm. Taylor... was not proud of how often she had had to rely on this aspect of her power.

And the plans for today are... keep moving I need to find some trace of civilization to get directions... not that I have money to spend either.

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It was almost noon and a small smile adorned Taylor's face for the first time in this world, during her morning walk while practicing the hand signs a beehive of bees had entered her range, so in addition to adding them to her growing swarm, she had been able to enjoy the sweet honey.

Oh?

Abruptly halting her stride, Taylor intensified her focus on the insects farthest ahead of her, something that had entered her detection range was moving rapidly in the opposite direction to hers on the road. It had a strange shape, and she was almost sure it was a car until it finally appeared in her field of vision and to her confusion, it turned out to be some kind of horse-drawn carriage.

She swallowed her surprise temporarily and raised her hand to catch the driver's attention, which seemed to have no effect as he did not slow down in the slightest.

"Heyyy!"

"Hey, excuse me!"

Finally, the driver reacted and quickly reduced his speed.

"What the hell... um, excuse me, miss, can I help you with something?"

Taylor could almost see his skin pale three shades when the driver looked at her closely.

"Yes, I need directions. Right now, I'm not quite sure where I am..."

The driver looked at her as if she had said something strange.

"Oh, yes, we should still be in Lord Fukuda's lands."

"Uh-huh... and where exactly is that...?"

"We're in the northwestern part of the Land of Fire, near the border with the Land of Grass..." Now the driver's look shifted by moments to a more suspicious tone.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I see... could you tell me where Konoha is ?"

With this question, the driver's look darkened, and she saw contempt spring from his eyes. "Tch, you should take off those clothes, stupid girl the penalty for impersonating ninja forces is death. I don't know whose body you stole them from, but if you know what's good for you, you'll leave them where you found them."

"Wai..."

Without letting her finish speaking, the driver accelerated again after spitting beside her.

This son of a...

Taylor let her anger slip into her swarm as she took a deep breath and analyzed the conversation, regardless of the driver's original attitude, he had shown deference when he first saw her... No, it wasn't because of me; he was looking at the band... It was only after discovering that she didn't know where she was and where Konoha was that his tone had returned to the original.

Was AlterTaylor Some kind of law enforcement? Like a police officer or a superhero in Brockton Bay ? Instead of heroes, did they have ninjas here? Based on what she had learned and the items in her bag, that seemed to be the case she didn't know what that meant for her, but it could undoubtedly cause her trouble, with just a couple of questions the driver had ruled out any possibility that she was one of those ninjas, the lack of common knowledge would be a problem she would have to solve as soon as possible if she wanted to survive.

The encounter with the driver gave her hopes of finding a nearby village; however, realistically, her situation was the same as before, there could be a village just around the corner or a week away by horse, and that's without considering that the driver might have joined from another road, Taylor dismissed the idea of running off and leaving her swarm behind quickly; she didn't know how to fight, and even with superhuman strength, she didn't want to confront anyone head-on, in the end at the rate she was going, it could take days or weeks before she reached the village, which discouraged her again.

The carriage and the horses... Is this parallel world an underdeveloped one?

Taylor wasn't entirely sure, the man's clothes didn't seem industrial, but she knew well that in her Earth, many villages far from the cities maintained traditional lifestyles, such as artisan products and horse-drawn carriages.

More questions...

Taylor could only move forward until she found answers.

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Two days had passed since Taylor encountered the driver, life hadn't magically improved, but at least her training and practice with her powers were showing results, Taylor structured her "training" routines according to the time of day: during most of the day while walking the road she improved in processing the information received from her swarm, even learning how to switch it off to relax. In the mornings and evenings, right after waking up and before going to sleep, she spent a couple of hours practicing how to breathe fire, the process was slow; through practice, she had learned to feel the energy flow within her without using the hand seals and although this didn't change the final outcome her instincts told her she needed to do something with that energy, however, any attempt to manipulate it ended in failure, it felt like trying to catch water with spread fingers; it just slipped through her grasp.

"mmm I wonder what name I should give you, little one."

In the palm of her hand, the largest rhinoceros beetle she had ever seen was curled up protectively.

unknown

Taylor almost fell flat on her face when she heard a response.

"Can you talk??!"

unknown...

Thoughts began to swirl in Taylor's head.

Is this part of my power too ?

It turned out that the beetle neither spoke nor understood what speech was, only after a long and frustrating conversation, Taylor managed to explain the concepts of creating and manipulating sound to convey information and link it to the concept of communication, thanks to her power, she knew that all species of insects had a language or code for transmitting information, with the most clear examples being the dances of bees or the pheromones of ants but these were very simple, Taylor never thought that a conversation could be held using these codes, evidently her power must have been doing some strange things behind the scenes to enable mutual understanding between Taylor and the beetle.

"Can I call you Bob?"

Maybe the isolation had affected her more than she thought, but she really needed to have a conversation, even if it was with an insect.

"..."

"Do you by any chance know where we are, buddy? Maybe where Konoha is?"

always forest

The conversations with Bob were not particularly productive, rather one-sided, as Taylor would telling things or asking questions that Bob really didn't understand. After all, he was just a forest insect.

"How will my dad be?"

"Do you think there's a city nearby?"

"I hope we find a place with hot water soon..."

That wasn't a reason for Taylor to stop; she truly believed it was something she needed to maintain her mental sanity, no matter how crazy it might seem to someone else if they could see her. Moreover, every now and then, a well-phrased question would yield a nugget of gold.

"Hey Bob, why do you and the other insects obey me?"

Because it's the queen's order

"The queen ordered you to listen to me? Who is the queen?"

You are the queen.

"..."

Taylor didn't understand. Did her power make her the queen of insects? Regardless of the reason, she could only say a few words.

"Thank you..."

After talking to Bob for the first time, the journey felt more and more uncomfortable. Taylor had been using the insects as if they were disposable pawns, even making them eat each other, unable to bear the doubts and tension any longer Taylor stopped in her tracks and tentatively sent a greeting to the rest of the swarm just to immediately fall face-first to the ground while vomiting although she had expected a response, It hadn't occurred to her that analyzing and understanding hundreds of thousands of different greetings with a similar meaning could send a wave of disorientation through her brain, only to be amplified as hundreds of thousands of voices sounded in her head at the same time.

Well, this will be something I'll have to get used to...

Once recovered she started to bring one by one members of all species of her swarm to test how many degrees of consciousness they had.

"Hey little one, how are you feeling?"

"..."

"Do you feel like doing something?"

"..."

It turned out to be much more awkward and unclear than she wanted it was hard to describe, but it was as if the bugs were robots guided by instincts rather than having initiative or even free will if she left them alone, they would simply respond with programmed actions to different stimuli they received her power allowed her to take advantage of this and they remained an excellent source of information about the terrain, being able to use them to search for food, water, or even know if they had seen more humans recently, which cheered her up but she couldn't help feeling a bitter taste because, in the end, she was still alone.

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As she approached her fourth night in this world, Taylor saw something that caught her attention—a column of smoke further along the road.

Where there's smoke, there's fire... It would be good to talk to someone, I need to get information about the local populations and if possible some basic necessities…

She could trade them for the spider silk she had made her spiders weave, to keep warm at night and now wrapped her body like a toga, after the failure with the driver, Taylor had decided to hide her headband and clothes just in case, better to present oneself as an ordinary person, than as an ordinary person pretending to be someone of authority, psyching herself up for her next steps she hesitated for a second but ultimately, the need for information and human contact overwhelmed her concerns.

Not wanting to scare the campers, Taylor ordered her swarm to stay hidden at the edges of her range unseen and slowly advanced towards the lit area.

"WHO GOES THERE!?"

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

Around the rough campfire, there were two men one in his thirties and the other older, possibly in his fifties they seemed quite nervous, which she supposed was a normal reaction if someone approached you out of nowhere in the middle of the forest at night, unlike the driver, they wore quite worn clothes without any remarkable accessories, and again, all appeared to be handmade the younger man was holding a knife he had been using to cut vegetables in a threatening manner this reminded her a bit of the merchant boys at her school when they faced off against guys from other gangs, the older man had his hand on the hilt of a sword at his hip, not yet drawn but like the other man, with a nervous tic in his eyes. Around them was a small camp set up with two sleeping bags, a couple of heavily loaded backpacks, and a bubbling pot over the fire.

Taylor slowly approached the source of light with her hands raised, hoping that wherever she was, the gesture meant the same thing as on her Earth.

"Please, I mean no harm."

"Then what do you want? Why are you here?!"

Taylor had the clear impression that she was not welcome in this group.

"I'm not from around here. I'd like to ask for some directions and make some trades."

Showing the white fabric, the two men looked her up and down, assessing her truthfulness and the danger she posed.

Well, this is awkward.

"Tch, she's just a girl, don't worry so much, old bastard."

"Hmph, if you live to my age, you'll understand that appearance doesn't mean much."

"Yeah, yeah, you're not even twenty years older than me, stop bragging, you've told your war stories a thousand times."

"Kid, I've seen children barely weaned kill dozens of grown men in seconds, you'd do well to be cautious..."

Taylor felt quite uncomfortable the older man continued to watch her even during the discussion. Not knowing what to do, yet too interested in the subject at hand, Taylor didn't want to interrupt the duo, so, she silently stood still until they finally relaxed and finished their figth.

"Come, sit down. Let's first discuss the questions you have."

"Actually, I'd like to hear those stories you mentioned. Truth is, I hit my head and have had some memory issues."

"Hahahah, come, come, sit closer and listen to this old man and his feats in the Second Great Ninja War. By the way, my name is Daiki, and that idiot over there is Hiroto, we are hunters from the neighboring village."

"Thank you, my name is Taylor."

Hiroto, the other man, rolled his eyes and started seasoning the stew over the fire with spices, completely ignoring Daiki.

…………………

………...

……

Taylor felt increasingly sleepy, they had been talking for several hours mostly about how Daiki experienced the war, and although she didn't say anything, Taylor was quite surprised to learn that so many parahumans existed on this planet, something was off, it was supposed to be that the children of parahumans had a much higher chance of gaining powers, but Daiki spoke of the "ninjas" as soldiers trained by countries, not as people who awakened incredible powers, he talked about great battles and legendary names from different countries, men who could disintegrate mountains, who had more powers than Eidolon or were faster than Velocity: the three Sannin, Hanzo the Salamander, the Third Raikage, and even the Third Hokage who apparently was the leader of the hidden village of Konoha.

During the conversation, Taylor mentioned some common technologies in her world, gauging the reactions of the two men, but most times they just looked at her with strange faces as if they didn't know what she was referring to, with a few atypical cases like the industry of the Rain Country or some methods of long-distance communication of which they really knew nothing. They kindly showed her a rough map of the main cities of the Land of Fire, including Konoha, something that apparently was common knowledge, ironically since it was called the hidden village.

The night had fully fallen when they finally talked about trading for the silk while eating the stew, Taylor knew she was underselling it, but a bottle of water was worth more than gold if you were dying of thirst in the desert, and right now she would give a lot for a sleeping bag, more normal food, one map and information, not to mention the ease with which she had obtained the spider silk.

Taylor was very sleepy, Daiki and Hiroto had been passing a metal flask because, according to Daiki, he couldn't tell a story without alcohol, and according to Hiroto, he wouldn't listen to those stories one more time without drinking it.

Taylor was so exhausted... she just wanted to close her eyes, end the day, wake up in her bed, go down to the kitchen, and see her father preparing breakfast…

… Something… is… wrong…. why…. am…. I…. so…. exhausted?

Something was happening, she had felt an uncomfortable sensation since they started dinner, she had ignored it to keep talking, but now Taylor was finding it increasingly hard to think. She tried to stand up without success; her body refused to respond to any of her requests.

Daiki and Hiroto had been silent for a while, watching her as if they were waiting for something.

.....I have….to do……….something......

....I....need......

...help…

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Daiki Higai

"I told you we had to be careful, she took enough drug to knock out four grown men, if it weren't for the antidote, we would have fallen much before her."

"Damn it, I hate the taste of this shit, we should have increased the dose and be done with it. This has taken too long, we could have knocked her out at any moment."

"Tch, if you want to die, don't drag me with you. Any decent ninja could split us in half even on the brink of death, and I plan to die of old age. Besides, she might have noticed the taste of the poison if we had increased the amount."

"Whatever... the boss will be wondering why we haven't signaled yet. Take care of that while I have a little fun, it's been a while since I had a good time."

Daiki clenched his teeth; he had never liked this part of the bandit life, especially now as he was getting older. Once, he had been an idealistic young man who enlisted in the army to become a hero. War had changed that, and the life of a bandit even more so, nowadays he just settled for not being part of the worst atrocities and surviving.

"Are you crazy? Do you want to end up like Tatsuo after he got ahead of the boss with fresh prey?"

"Meh, if you don't tell him anything, the boss won't find out. The young girls these days are getting fresher and fresher, hehe. Do you think she's the daughter of a rich merchant or maybe a lost noble? That would explain the tolerance to the poison and the expensive fabric. I've never seen such soft fabric. Do you think that's fair?! They up there enjoy all kinds of luxuries and abuse their power while we wallow in the mud, but now... her precious inheritance and blue blood will not protect her"

"I don't think she's a merchant's daughter, she would have tried to get much more out of us for that fabric, with the strange devices and luxuries she talked about, I'm almost sure she's some noble, who knows, she might have been the victim of foul play, although the rich try to boast about how different they are from us, in reality we are quite similar, except that unlike them, we don't hide it."

Daiki turned his gaze away; he had done all he was willing to do for the young woman, the world was a harsh and cold place, everyone had to look out for their own life, he sent a prayer for the girl and started to move away from the camp.

"SHIT!!! Look at this!!"

Daiki, who already had his hand on the sword, turned around quickly only to see Hiroto holding a headband pulled from under the fabric cloak, he felt a chill just from seeing it; he knew what that headband meant, and it could only mean one thing.

"Ninja..."

This changed everything; it was no longer something they could decide without asking their boss, and with a ninja involved, time was gold.

"Tie her up with all the ropes we have. We have to move fast; she might have friends nearby or they might send ninjas to investigate."

The headband wasn't scratched, which only made it more worrisome, a missing ninja might be alone, but a village ninja wouldn't be, that they weren't already dead might even be a stroke of luck, but if they delayed, they wouldn't be long in becoming so.

"We have to erase the tracks and take the emergency routes. Help me pack up the camp when you're done."

Things were escalating very quickly, and Daiki didn't like it at all, maybe it was time to abandon the band just like he did with his platoon in the war. After all, in this life, one has to look out for oneself…

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Shibi Aburame

"BAM!!"

"I will not abandon my sister nor will I declare her dead!!"

Shibi was furious, it was uncharacteristic of him to show so much emotion, and he was sure many in the room had never heard him say such a long sentence, but for them to have the audacity of want to declare his sister dead boiled his blood. Seven days ago, the village had recruited his younger sister for an emergency mission, the mission was a simple exchange of information with another of the ninja villages, but something had gone wrong, the information had been leaked, and at the meeting place, they were ambushed, according to the survivors who had returned from the mission, before separating his sister had voluntarily sacrificed her insects to create realistic clones and mislead the enemy and yet they didn't want to lift a finger, he had to constantly remind himself that as the heir to the clan, he could not lose his composure, jump across the table and hit the old bureaucrats.

"Please, Shibi-kun, understand that the chances of survival are minimal, we don't have free assets at this moment, and any team we send could be ambushed again."

Shibi clenched his teeth; it was all lies, just another power play among the high ranks of the village, he was about to give another sharp response when a voice cut in.

"Silence."

Shibi bit his tongue at the cold, icy voice of his mother, who had a stony face.

"I will not abandon my daughter to fate. I don't care how or where, but if a rescue team is not sent to find my daughter, the members of the Aburame clan will leave their posts in the village to go personally."

"Annette-sama! the members of the Aburame clan hold many important surveillance positions in the village, you can't just withdraw them!!"

"It's good that you understand, we will give them 3 hours to form and gather a rescue team. This conversation is over."

Shibi stood up and withdrew along with his mother and the other elders of the Aburame clan. Once again, he had learned how much he still had to grow to fill his mother's shoes as the matriarch of the clan. Since his father died in the war, she had assumed all his responsibilities and worked to overcome the loss of her half-kunai Shibi promised himself that he would be the pillar of the family to lighten his mother's load, he had trained very hard and studied even harder, reaching the point of becoming a tokubetsu jonin at 18, an incredible achievement even for members of the great clans of the village. Yet, it was still moments like these when he remembered how far he still had to go to measure up.

He might not have been of much help in the meeting, but he knew where he would be in three hours Shibi had attended his father's funeral too soon, while anger and determination fueled his body he mentally promised that the same thing wouldn't happen with his sister nothing and no one would prevent him from going to find his younger sister.